Yesterday was a day to experience the best in West Kootenay bushwhacking as four of us set out to climb Mt Kaslo.This is a moderate peak right across the lake from the town of the same name and my hiking partner and I have been looking at it for some time now, considering when we ought to go see what the summit was like.
As it turned out, there were 4 of us along to catch the 6:30 am ferry from Balfour to the east side of Kootenay Lake. By 8 am we had driven north up the Lake and east along another old logging road and were ready to start thrashing through the bush.
To make a long bushwhack story short, it took 7 hours of that kind of travel to get to the summit and back, each with our own personal cloud of mosquitoes following in our wakes. There is no trail up this mountain, so the strategy was to head off through the trees in the general direction. It's a pretty thick forest so views were pretty limited until we neared the top.Views from the summit, though, were as to be expected - Mt Loki to the south, Powder Creek to the east, Kootenay Lake below us and mountains in all directions. After a rest and some sustenance, we began the thrash back down. It was shorter, but no more fun than the ascent. We just missed one ferry so had to console ourselves with ice-cream cones while waiting for the next boat to take us across the lake.
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